


build-a-bear, build-a-home

by voidscout



Category: Camp Camp (Web Series)
Genre: Adopted Max, Dadvid adoption, Gwenvid if you squint - Freeform, Idk how to tag things, Max Adopted by David, dadvid, gwenvid - Freeform, idk what im doing help, pain and suffering...., please
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-19
Updated: 2020-10-19
Packaged: 2021-03-09 05:46:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,820
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27109726
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/voidscout/pseuds/voidscout
Summary: it’s max’s eleventh birthday, and david’s panicking!!! helpjust a cute dadvid drabble, i didnt proofread so it’s probably ass but. it’s cute i think
Relationships: David & Max (Camp Camp), David/Gwen (Camp Camp)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 80





	build-a-bear, build-a-home

David was seriously struggling to figure out a birthday gift for Max. He thought, in all truth, he knew the boy well enough that picking out a gift wouldn’t be an issue, but as the date grew closer and closer, he was subtly beginning to panic. About a week before the big day, his worries had fizzled over, and he found himself on the phone to Gwen while Max was at school, crying about the issue to her.

“For the last time, David, I can’t help you if you keep sobbing like that,” complained an exasperated Gwen from the other side of the line, regretting giving up her lunch break to help David with this. “It’s Max — he’ll be equally ungrateful no matter what you get him.”

“But— but—,” David hiccuped, sniffles scattered throughout his words, “this is his first birthday while living with me! What if I mess it up? I don’t want his memory of his eleventh birthday to be a disaster!”

“Do you even remember YOUR eleventh birthday?”

“That’s besides the point, Gwen!” 

Gwen sighed, moving her phone away for just a moment to rub the bridge of her nose in frustration. She didn’t have time for this, in all honesty, and she was already getting odd states from her coworkers due to the fact that David’s sobs were audible through the speaker. She needed to think of a way to not only get him to calm down, but to give him an idea for a gift so that he wouldn’t call her crying again any time soon. “Look,” she said, finally, “what does he like? He’s been living with you for a few months now — you’ve surely figured that out, right?”

David hesitated for a moment, before answering, “well, he likes action movies, and pretty much anything violent—“

“Don’t get him another BB gun,” Gwen warned, knowing the disaster that was the first gift David had bought Max.

“Why, I would never, Gwen!” David responded, sounding almost offended at the fact she’d even consider that as one of his options, while he mentally crossed that idea off of his list. 

“Well— what else does he like?” Gwen had been glancing nervously at the clock hanging on the break room’s wall for the past few minutes now, knowing her time to talk about this was slowly drawing to a close, “how about, uh— right! His bear. What was it’s name again? It was something stupid, I know that much.”

“Don’t be rude to Mr. Honeynuts,” David said with a pout, resulting in a groan from Gwen that he could almost hear the eye-roll in.

“Whatever. He likes teddy bears, then, right? Take him to Build-A-Bear or something.”

David’s eyes lit up like Christmas lights at the mention of the name; “You’re a genius, Gwen!”

Gwen breathed a sigh of relief, as David’s realisation had come at just the right time. She stood up from the table she was sitting at, holding the phone to her ear with her shoulder as she started clearing away the remains of what she ate for lunch. “You happy now? Not gonna call me crying again? Good. I’ve gotta go,” she rattled off her response, not waiting for David to answer, as she dumped her garbage in the trash and took her phone in her hand again, hanging up.

David was mid-response when she hung up, but he didn’t take it personally — it didn’t really matter now, anyways, since he had to start planning! He had so many ideas of how he’d surprise Max, take him to the store, maybe they could get little matching outfits for his new plush buddy and Mr. Honeynuts... it’d be great!

The rest of that week was dedicated to setting everything up. He had already ordered a cute little birthday cake from the bakery down the street (it was only a small one since he knew it’d really only be him and Max sharing it anyways), and he had found some nice party decorations that he could set up in the kitchen after Max had gone to bed the night before. He’d even picked out a selection of Max’s favourite movies (or what he assumed were his favourite movies) to watch in the evening! As long as he was determined, nothing could go wrong.

On the big day, he found himself knocking on Max’s door at around 11 in the morning. Usually he would have woken him up a little bit earlier, but he figured letting Max sleep in today would be for the best. Once he got the affirmative grunt from inside the room that assured him Max was awake, he stepped inside, a big grin on his face.

“Happy birthday, Max!” he called, eyes gleaming with joy, in stark contrast to Max’s annoyed expression. The boy simply rolled over in his bed to face away from the man, burying him and Mr. Honeynuts under the bedsheets. Despite the negative reaction, David remained undeterred, taking confident strides over to the window and opening the curtains wide, letting beams of sunlight into the room.

“God, David,” Max complained, rolling onto his back and sitting up after one of said beams of sunlight had landed directly on his face, “can’t I have ONE day without your early morning wake-up call bullshit?”

“Actually,” David said, while he absentmindedly started cleaning up the room, “it’s a bit later than usual. I thought you’d need a little extra rest for the big plans I have for you today!” Not only was that part of the reason, but letting Max sleep in also gave him time to pop down to the bakery, and perfect his decoration set-up.

“Fine, whatever,” Max groaned in reply, rubbing sleep out of his eyes, “but these ‘big plans’ better not be some shitty nature walk or something.”

“Oh, Max, you know I’d have something better than that planned. Plus, I’m saving the nature walk for MY birthday!” The redhead teased, earning more complaints from the boy. He walked out of the room, arms filled with dirty and discarded clothes, a smile still on his face. “I’ll be waiting downstairs for you — when you’re ready, head down, and we’ll head out for a quick drive!”

While Max got ready, David spent his time putting the washing into the washing machine — he could let the clothes wash while they were out, he figured, and when they got back, he could go about drying them. He didn’t want to spend too long doing chores today, though. Max took priority.

Speaking of the boy, he appeared in the kitchen not too long after the washing machine had started it’s cycle. David knew it wouldn’t take the boy too long to get ready (despite the fact Max insisted he shouldn’t mess up his hair, and putting so much care into it), because it never really did. With a grin, David guided the birthday boy out to the drive, holding the car door open for him. 

Occasionally, as they drove, David would glance into the rearview mirror to catch a glimpse of Max. He could tell that he had no idea where they were going — with each new turn, his eyebrows would furrow in confusion, as he mentally tried to map out the direction they were going. It was actually quite endearing, if David was honest. Even once they arrived at the mall, Max was still fairly oblivious. 

When they entered, and David paused to check one of the various maps that were stationed around, he could feel Max’s gaze on him, most likely trying to link the man’s eyes to the position he was looking at on the map, to try and figure out where he was planning on taking him. He caught Max in the act, of course, causing the boy to quickly glare back at the floor in slight embarrassment at his slip-up. The redhead took the boy’s hand in his, eventually, and started guiding him through the bustling halls, until they reached their destination.

“Build-A-Bear?” Max questioned, looking between David and the store. David nodded confidently, although he was really trying to gauge the boy’s reaction. Maybe David was bad at reading people, or maybe Max was just hard to read, but he was stuck between judging Max’s reaction as surprise or just confusion.

“I, ah, kind of struggled to figure out what you’d like,” David admitted, rubbing the back of his neck with his free hand, “but I thought you’d like this!”

“...it’s fine,” Max said, looking to the side and giving a shrug, which David judged as meaning his decision was the right one. With his brightest grin of the day, he lead Max inside.

That part of the day was mainly guided by Max. He let the boy roam the store, and let him decide what he wanted — it was his birthday, after all! There would be moments where Max would forget David was there, it seemed, and genuinely smile, before realising the redhead was still trailing closely behind, and letting his expression fall back to one of a lack of interest, hoping the man hadn’t seen anything. David would never tell him that he saw, of course, not wanting to embarrass him.

For the rest of their trip, everything went smoothly. Max may have sworn at a few of the employees, for which David profusely apologised (mainly because Max felt like he was being patronised, which mad David feel like he thought he was older than he really was). They paid, left, ate some cake, watched movies... 

Max was clearly tuckered out by the end of the day. He could barely keep his head up at the end of their second film, and he had completely fallen asleep in the middle of the third, his arms wrapped tightly around his two friends (Mr. Honeynuts, and a rabbit he had yet to name). With a small smile, David had carried him upstairs, and into his room, and had tucked him into bed, giving him a small kiss on the forehead before slowly stepping out of the room.

David couldn’t tell if Max was truly happy after that day trip or not, but he felt like he was. Like he had previously thought, the boy truly was hard to read, but he trusted his instincts on this choice. It seemed like something like this had never really been done for Max before, and he was just glad that he could make up for the part of the world that had let Max down. He was happy he could be there for him, he and was happy that Max was there for him, too. They really helped each other. 

David ended up falling asleep on the couch himself that night, a half-eaten slice of cake on the table, and one of Max’s favourite movies playing in the background, as the sun began to rise on the horizon.


End file.
